Cleaning appliances such as vacuum cleaners are well known. The majority of vacuum cleaners are either of the ‘upright’ type or of the ‘cylinder’ type. An example of a cylinder vacuum cleaner manufactured by Dyson Limited under the name DC05 (“DC05” is a trade mark of Dyson Limited) is shown in FIG. 1.
Cylinder vacuum cleaners (called “canister” or “barrel” cleaners in some countries) generally comprise a main body 10 which contains separating apparatus 11 for separating dirt and dust from an incoming dirty airflow and for collecting the separated material. The separating apparatus is usually a filter bag or a cyclonic separator. The dirty airflow is introduced to the main body 10 via a hose and wand assembly 15, 16 which is connected to the main body 10. The main body 10 of the cleaner is dragged along by the hose 15 as a user moves around a room. A cleaning tool 20 is attached to the remote end of the wand 16. The wand 16 usually comprises a set of two, or sometimes more, telescopic tubes which can be adjusted to a length which is matched to the physical requirements of a user between a fully extended position and a fully retracted position.
It is known to provide a socket 18 on the main body of the vacuum cleaner and a hook 17 on the wand so that a user can ‘park’ the wand in the socket 18. When the wand is parked, it is positioned substantially vertically so that it can be readily grasped by a user. In this manner, a user does not need to bend down to retrieve the wand from the floor. A user may also choose to park the wand in this manner when the vacuum cleaner is stored. The wand can be parked in its fully retracted position for storage. Although this feature is useful, the vacuum cleaner and wand are still quite cumbersome to carry from one place to another and the cleaner is not particularly easy to store in places of limited space.